Love Notes

“Do you think I am to blame for this?”

Nita asked me this question many times.

I met Nita in 2018 to realize some pictures for her new career as fashion stylist. After some months we’ve become close enough to allow her to open up about her personal life. On night she wrote me telling me that she’s been beaten up by her boyfriend and that wasn’t the first time, but definitely it would have been the last one.

'Love Notes', is the story of Nita, a 34 years old Finnish woman and mother of two kids who’s been living in an abusive relationship for four years, since the birth of her twins.

About one year ago she decided to end the relationship and get back her life.

I decided to focus my attention on the aftermath of the violence, a topic most of the time forgotten but very important as well. As I had the chance to understand the violence many times unfortunately doesn’t end when the abuser is sent away.

The story takes place in Finland, a country know as the happiest country in the world, a country praised for equality and that recently has seen its Government coalition being led by an almost 'women only' group of party leaders. Finland unfortunately hides under the blanket of gender equality and women’s rights the unfortunate second place in the EU for the highest percentage of cases of domestic violence. (according to recent EU statistics)